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About Me

Born in Baton Rouge, raised in Philadelphia, Paul Griffin is a writer, scholar and tutor working and living in New York City. He writes book reviews for The Brooklyn Rail and a blog on the dharma for One City at Belief.net. He believes the world is enchanted and enlightenment is real.
Pennypome no. 17
(for my family)
a gold Lincoln is the price for a poem;
for a story, five dollars; for a novel excerpt,
a tenspot; and for absolutely all the thoughts,
a bucket of sandsharks & starfish & seahorses.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Meditations

Philosophy is the art of contemplation. Thinking takes time. It is the fixing of one's mind upon a certain idea, or thought-space; the delving deeper into liberation via truth, or right-view; the resting of the mind and body in a clarity of light, or ultimate luminosity. Consider the following meditations.

a. On Non-Dual Reality.Thesis: The process of enlightenment, or liberation, is none other than the process of dissolving the boundary between subject and object, between self and other, between interior and exterior. Practice: Staring, with a soft gaze, at wind-blown leaves.

b. On The Mind/Body Problem.Thesis: The mind is the body, as the body is the mind; the mind is none other than the body, as the body is none other than the mind; the mind is the perfect representation of the body, as the body is the perfect representation of the mind. The two are one; their separateness is illusion, or misapprehension. Sources: Whitman, Dr. Reggie Ray, tantric tradition

c. The Dual-Dialectic of World-PoliticsThesis: The world is approaching, in Hegelian fashion, a dualistic political reality of, on the one hand, absolute totalitarianism, and, on the other, utter anarchy. The future holds both systems, simultaneously. Pockets of anarchy will stand over and against world-totalitarianism.